


“Always so eager to please.” (Chapter 53.5)

by DarkAcey



Series: Bonus content from Not My Namesake [4]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: Backstory, Deleted Scenes, Flashbacks, Gen, Good Ghirahim (Legend of Zelda), Hope vs. Despair, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Internal Conflict, Introspection, Missing Scene, Past Abuse, Post-Breath of the Wild, Post-Calamity Ganon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26110582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAcey/pseuds/DarkAcey
Summary: While Ghirahim travels with new companions, he sneaks away to have a moment alone. Unfortunately for him, he can't escape the past that haunts him.This bonus chapter comes fromNot My Namesake, a story about a new generation of heroes. It can be read on its own, but it fits most neatly between chapters 53 and 54.
Relationships: Demise/Ghirahim (Legend of Zelda), Ganondorf & Ghirahim (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Bonus content from Not My Namesake [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1806355
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	“Always so eager to please.” (Chapter 53.5)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not My Namesake](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22827259) by [DarkAcey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAcey/pseuds/DarkAcey). 



> In case y'all haven't seen this INCREDIBLE fan art by [Ganondoodles](https://twitter.com/ganondoodles), please take a look at it here before you read: <https://ganondoodle.tumblr.com/post/623564290352414721/demise-vs-link>. When I mention Demise, this is the version I'm envisioning, not the sad canon one we see in Skyward Sword.

As Ghirahim slipped outside the inn and went down a random street in Gatepost Town, his thoughts replayed the evening’s argument _ad nauseam_. It wasn’t fair that he was forced to stoop so low for the barest amount of respect. If Zelda’s rapier hadn’t been such a precarious anchor, he would have already teleported back to his rooms in the Yiga hideout. Yet as Ghirahim continued walking past quaint storefronts lit by torchlight, loathing every excruciatingly mundane step, he knew returning wouldn’t help his mood. Just thinking of his throne twisted his stomach. He had loved sitting on the cushions upon its polished granite seat so much, receiving praise and gifts from devoted Yiga members, but it felt tainted and hollow now.

A couple walking ahead of Ghirahim switched to the sidewalk on the other side of the street. A trail of smoke drifted through an open window, exhaled by a smoker staring at Ghirahim through half-lidded eyes. A cat hissed at the demon and sprinted down an alley. Ghirahim watched it flee with pinched lips. When he spotted a vagrant with a bottle tucked into a paper bag, he turned his head with a sigh. The vagrant’s gaze prickled against his skin even after he fell out of sight.

Other townsfolk continued to stare while Ghirahim walked. His iridescent scaled halter and hip sash glimmered beneath the torchlights along the road, and his amethyst eyeshadow no doubt gave his face a hollow-eyed look under their flickering light. He might have preened under the attention normally, but their suspicious gazes and hurried footsteps only further soured his mood.

Ghirahim tucked his chin into his cape and pulled it up to his ears. What did any of them know? None of them knew anything. Not mortal strangers or Ganondorf or his new friends. Only Demise…

“Enough of _that_ ,” Ghirahim growled to himself, but it didn’t stop the ache in his chest or the hitch in his breath. “He’s not…” He shook his head. “He would flay me if he saw me like this.”

When Ghirahim caught yet another passerby staring in the corner of his eye, he gave an aggravated huff and looked up. The buildings around him were pressed close together. None of them were very tall either. Upon spotting an awning over a store window, he ran up and swung himself on top. The fabric barely gave beneath him before he was already scaling up the side of the building and pulled himself up onto its gable roof. A low, impressed whistle from the passerby rose and passed.

Ghirahim walked along the top of the roof tiles, chin up as if the steep drop meant nothing to him, and sat down on the edge of a chimney. Its stonework was cold, but the smell of soot lingered in its flue. He looked out beyond the walls of town towards Lake Kolomo. He wondered if Ganondorf and Zelda liked the fireflies. They had been gone long enough for him to reasonably hope that they did, but he didn’t want to delude himself anymore with false comforts. Closing his eyes, he tipped back his head and focused on the feeling of his bangs sliding across his cheek and his sapphire earring swinging against his neck.

A memory flashed before him, of Demise pushing aside his bangs. His palm cupped the side of his face and his thumb brushed over his forehead. Ghirahim had leaned into his touch with a contented hum, ignoring the way his ribs ached with fresh bruises.

“You’ve been out here for a while,” Demise had said, giving him a crooked smile that showed his thick canines. The Demon King had found Ghirahim sitting high up on a tree branch, idly watching over the camp their army had made for that night. Being twice the size of any mortal man in his physical form, Demise hadn’t needed to climb up after Ghirahim. He merely walked up and faced him.

“Yes,” Ghirahim murmured. Savoring the gentle attention, he held carefully still. “Someone has to make sure your pets behave themselves.”

Demise chuckled and pulled back his hand. Ghirahim leaned to follow it until he could bend no further and slumped back with an annoyed huff. Demise hummed in amusement. “Always so eager to please.”

“Of course, Master.” Ghirahim met the Demon King’s eyes and gave him his best impish grin, but inside he wondered, _am I actually pleasing you?_

Demise smiled back, but the corners didn’t quite reach his eyes. He turned back towards their army. Over a thousand monsters were sleeping in ragged tents, sharpening dulled weapons, or standing watch over dim campfires. More than half their numbers were nursing some injury or another, many caused by each other over their sparse rations rather than Hylia’s soldiers. The land itself didn’t look much better. The grass was trampled into dirt. Forests behind them had been burned to ash. Broken bodies were still strewn about the battlefield.

While Demise studied their army, Ghirahim turned his attention to his master. His mane of fiery hair was burning low, flames breaking off at the bottom and fading intermittently. He folded his arms and rolled back his shoulders. The scales across his back and arms bristled and smoothed themselves out, as they did when he was angry but pretending he wasn’t.

Earlier that evening, they received news that Hylia was moving her humans, sending them to some sanctuary she was in the process of building. Ghirahim didn’t believe any sanctuary in Hyrule would be able to hold back their horde, but Demise knew Hylia better than that. She was obviously planning something and they were running out of time to stop it.

“I could go on ahead,” Ghirahim murmured. “If I leave you here, I can try to sabotage things behind her ranks.”

“No.” Demise didn’t turn back around or raise his voice, but Ghirahim still shrunk back as if he had. He felt the bruises on his ribs more keenly.

“We’re not going to reclaim the land she’s holding before she finishes the sanctuary,” Ghirahim tried again. “Our forces are too exhausted.”

“I know.” The scales across Demise’s shoulders rippled. “Hylia will know if you leave.”

“But she won’t necessarily be able to track where I’ve gone. I can—”

“I said _no_ , Ghirahim.” Demise’s claws tightened around his folded arms. “I need you here.”

Ghirahim hung his head. He didn’t ask why he should stay by his master’s side. This wasn’t only a matter of military strategy. If the demon lord left his master, there would be no one left to curb his temper and help him focus on the goals at hand. The fact that Demise took out his anger on Ghirahim – as he had earlier that evening, throwing him against the war table so he wouldn’t kill their messenger – was merely another unfortunate necessity.

As Demise turned to return to his tent, he noticed a darkening splotch on Ghirahim’s pale skin past the edge of his cape, visible through the diamond cutouts in his leotard. He brushed his fingers against the spot, making Ghirahim tense, but the demon lord relaxed when Demise sent a pulse of healing magic into his ribs.

“Thank you, Master,” Ghirahim whispered.

Demise merely nodded and left.

Ghirahim watched the Demon King walk away and felt his throat close up. He didn’t understand why it hurt to be healed, to be left alone when that was why he had left their tent in the first place. They had both needed a break from each other after their last argument, trying to decide what Hylia was planning. If they had continued fighting, they would have only made a bigger mess of their tent and given their forces more reason to lose morale. Ghirahim knew it had been ill-advised to offer another idea so soon, especially one he knew neither of them would have liked, but he didn’t know what else he was supposed to do.

He didn’t know what he was doing wrong. All Ghirahim did know was that he hated Hylia for twisting Demise into this broken version of himself, for turning her back on him when the Three decided they couldn’t trust him anymore.

A breeze chilled the nape of Ghirahim’s neck and he tucked his chin into his cloak once more, pulling himself out of the memory, but the _feelings_ remained. He hadn’t been enough to help Demise. He wasn’t going to be enough to help Ganondorf win yet another war between monsters and Hylia’s people either. The futility of it all made his jaw ache with how hard he was gritting his teeth.

Worse still, he didn’t know if he was making a mistake now or if he had just been mistaken all along. He didn’t want to regret the time he had spent with Demise. But if he didn’t regret it, was he betraying him by aligning himself with Hylians?

The longer Ghirahim tried to balance the weights of his allegiances, the harder it became to reconcile them. He gave up with a heavy sigh and decided it shouldn’t matter. Neither Hylia nor Demise were participating in Hyrule’s current affairs. If either of them decided to show an interest, he would come back to the question. In the meantime, he need only worry about his present companions. Their barbed words and petty grievances were ultimately only a trifling matter. He had endured worse for Demise’s sake.

Ghirahim remained on the roof until the sky began lightening with the advent of dawn. He stiffly rose from his seat on its chimney climbed down, landing lightly on the street. Wagons and pedestrians were hurrying to and fro, busy already with the day’s work and errands.

Before Ghirahim returned to the inn, he paused outside a bakery. A woman inside was stocking the display window with a tray of fresh pastries. As a customer left the shop with a warm loaf of bread, carrying out the toasted flour scent of the bakery’s ovens, Ghirahim recalled how his companions bonded over Ganondorf’s cooking. He glanced back at the pastries in the window.

A few minutes later, Ghirahim slipped into his companions’ room at the inn. He set down a box of honeyed sweet rolls on the desk and waited for his companions to wake.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as an exercise to get into Ghirahim's head, but it became an important first step in hammering down who I actually want Demise to be in [Not My Namesake](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22827259/chapters/54555730) and its sequel. I still have a long way to go to fully develop Demise and his whole backstory with Ghirahim. I hope you all enjoyed this little glimpse regardless.


End file.
